The Blossoming of Jessamine
by Irwaen
Summary: A story based after the first Poison Diaries book about Jessamine and how she changes. Note. Rating changed due to slightly more adult content in the later chapters
1. Chapter 1

It has been a week since I woke and I am still unable to do more than sit up; everything exhausts me. Father seems to feel guilty about what he has done but my heart has hardened against him. Who could love the man who tried to kill them? Who could love the man who turned their lover into a killer? I barely speak to him and he does not try to make me talk.

I think of Oleander, the prince who promised to show me the world. Oh, he promised me cruelty but he promised wonders, too. I wonder, even as I sit here, shall I return to him? Shall I be his poisonous bride? I already have the name: Jessamine. I am the poisonous flower, so pretty and sweet; drink of my nectar and drop dead on your feet. I laugh lightly to myself. Oh, to wear that gown of petals again, to have my every step be perfumed.

To fly among the poisons.

As I sit in my bed I realise how much I long for Oleander. My memories of him are hazy. They are from a time when I lay in bed as a broken shell but also flew in a misty sky. I saw such evil those days, but I also tasted such sweetness. The belladonna berry, for instance. I tasted the sweetness of the lovely lady, I _was_ the lovely lady.

"Jessamine," I hear my father say. "Here is some soup… if you eat you may soon be able to leave your bed…" He tentatively places a tray upon my lap and I smell the scents of carrots and other vegetables from the garden. I am hungry, I realise. I take the bread that has been placed invitingly beside the bowl and I dip it into the soup. "Please eat," he begs. "If you eat you'll become strong…"

Yes, strong. Strong enough to enter the poison garden.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN. I really ought to say this because I forgot to at the beginning of the last chapter (and I will probably forget with all subsequent chapters) so here it is: I do not own the poison diaries nor do I have any rights with the characters; all credit should be directed towards Maryrose Wood and the Duchess of Northumberland. Because I almost always forget to add author notes (and if I do it's only because I worked very hard to remember) this one is the definitive one just so if I haven't written one please just mentally copy/paste this.**

Two days pass and I am finally able to leave my bed without collapsing. I catch a glance of myself in a mirror as I stumble around my room and I see how much I have changed. I am thinner and paler- only to be expected- and my hair is lanker than it was, but as I regain my strength I suppose I will begin to look as I once did too. I close my eyes and remember the first few days after I woke. Father lies about what had happened and why Weed left.

"He murdered an innocent man on the roadside Jessamine and he poisoned you. I think he was truly mad..." I pretend to swallow his lies, though I am offended by how simple he seems to think I am.

Father makes me many soups and teas and cares for me more than he has ever done before. There was a time when I would have longed for him to do this. He left me alone all the time and all but imprisoned me within our cottage. Then he poisoned me, all for a few recipes. _So, old man, _I think mockingly_, do you desire redemption? Do you hope to achieve that through me? _My Father can never be redeemed. He poisoned me, he experimented on people…I wrap a shawl around my shoulders and manage to stumble into the kitchen where I collapse on a chair by the window. It looks out over the gardens where I once worked in harmony with Weed.

_Weed. _I think with a sudden jolt of pain in my heart. _I loved you, Weed, and you have left me_. Though, while there is a dull ache, my heart does not long for Weed as it once did. My time with Oleander when I lay dying changed that. He only told me the truth, when everyone else I knew had lied to me, at least once with Weed and constantly in the case of my father. My gaze shifts so that I am looking at the distant wall that hides the poison garden. I long to meet Oleander again; I am not the young girl who fell in love with the straggling Weed. I am something darker now and love something darker now. I have grown from girl to woman yet I still desire my prince who will make me a princess. A girlish dream, is it not? The standard setting for every fairytale. But what a twisted fairytale this is! It cannot have a happy ending, I know, but life never does.

I am able to go into the garden after another two days have passed and it is there that I learn just how much meeting Oleander has changed me.

I am like Weed now; I can hear the plants' voices. They call to me. Perhaps that is a sign: my fate is to become one of them.

"Beware, Jessamine!" The thyme cries. "Beware the poisons behind the wall!" His cry is echoed by the other herbs and the roses beg me to not go into the poison garden. I heed their warnings for now. I am not ready yet.


	3. Chapter 3

My father tells me that he shall have to leave me alone for all of tomorrow; he has business of some kind to discuss with the duke. I nod and tell him that I shall be fine. I am no longer a bedridden weakling. He has no need to worry.

I am strong enough to live again.

It is with that though that another, more important, realisation makes itself known to me: I am strong enough to enter the poison garden. I am ready to see Oleander again.

When Father is gone I shall go to Oleander and I hope to never have to return to the prison that this cottage has been to me.

I go to sleep that night feeling excited and more alive than I have felt in a long time.

Father leaves early the next morning and as soon as I am sure he is truly gone I dress and go out into the garden. I know that I have no key for the poison garden's lock, but perhaps I could climb the wall or pick it somehow. I will find a way.

When I get to the gate all these ideas are laid to rest as I see Oleander standing there, waiting for me.

He is beautiful, so deadly, but so beautiful. My memories of him are hazy but the sight of him brings some of it back; the sight of his silvery hair and his dark eyes and his lips, so red that they could only be poisonous. My gaze lingers on those lips and Oleander sees me doing this and smiles.

"You have returned to me, my lovely lady." He says and his smile might make some cower away in fright but it only makes me shiver.

"I have" Hi smile widens and he reaches out to touch the lock. At his touch thin green vines twist and grow from the lock's centre. I hear the creak and whine of metal being mangled by the plants, until, with a final groan, the lock bursts open and falls to the ground where the vines wither and become dust.

"Is this your choice? To stay with me?"

"It is." I pull the chain from the gate and open it. Oleander takes my hand and pulls me to him over the threshold. I laugh delightedly. "I want to stay with you, Prince Oleander." Oleander smiles and cups my jaw with his hand.

"One kiss and you'll be Jessamine, Princess of Poisons…" He leans in towards me and I do not resist or try to move away. His kiss is so sweet, just as he promised me and just like the belladonna berry was. It burns my lips the way the juice burned my eyes. This time, however, I do not shrink away from the pain. This time I let myself fall into it and revel in it.

"It's your poison, isn't it?" I say breathlessly. "It's changing me into something like you."

"Yes my sweet. It is waking the poison that is in you, the poison of the Jessamine flower, but for this to be permanent, for you to truly become poison you must first act as poison…" I catch his meaning immediately.

"You want me to kill."

"Is there no one? No one you want revenge upon?" His smile is coaxing the answer out of me. We both know it.

"My father" I say softly and the thought fills me with a sort of glee. Truly I would be free from him! Free from what he did to me, free from his control over what I may and may not do. "Oh, my prince," I whisper in his ear, a teasing smile at my lips. "Just give me the tools and the deed is done."

"You are Jessamine; you are becoming that which can kill. You have no need for anything else."

"I am the poisonous flower, pretty and sweet; drink of my nectar and drop dead on your feet. Is that right?"

"Yes." He kisses my lips again. "When we next meet flowers will bloom in your hair and you will wear that wedding gown."

"Will I tremble? Will I be as intoxicated by you as you promised I would be?"

"I would never break a promise to you." I enjoy the feel of his lips on my own for a few moments more. I am almost overcome by the urge to go further with him but I pull away.

"I must go." I lick my lips and savour the taste of him that still lingers there. "I'll return when it is done." Oleander bows then flaps his wings and flies away.

_Soon that will be you_, I think to myself.


	4. Chapter 4

I feign reconciliation with my father when he returns home. I cook us both supper and we sit to eat. He is delighted that I seem to be talking to him again.

What he does not know is that I have put some of my blood into the gravy. While he was sat in his chair by the fire I took a kitchen knife and carefully made a small cut in my finger, letting the blood seep into the stew. If Oleander was telling the truth, then my blood ought to be all that I need to kill him.

"I am glad that you seem better," He tells me with a smile.

"All I needed was some rest, I think." It is hard to make myself seem like I want us to be friends again when really I am waiting for him to die. I watch him closely as he eats

As I am clearing our plates away I notice that his pupils are larger than normal and he seems to be shivering.

"Father, are you alright?" My voice is innocent yet I am only thinking of how my poison seems to be working.

"I…don't know…" He clamps a hand over his mouth as though he is about to be sick. I move over to him and place a hand on his forehead to feel his temperature. It feels clammy and yet he is sweating. He suddenly convulses in pain and is still gagging; he is bent over with his head between his knees.

"Maybe," I say sweetly "it was something you ate?" He raises his head to look at me and understanding flickers in his eyes.

"What did you do to me?" His voice is hoarse and he gasps between each word.

"Oh my Father," I say "you named me after poison, you raised me around poisons, you fed me poison… how can you be surprised that poison is what I have become?" He is gasping faster now, his breathing laboured. His eyes are bloodshot and his pupils so large that I can barely see the irises.

Watching him die, having this power over his life, is such a rush. It makes me feel so alive. I dance away from him and laugh while he sits there convulsing in his chair. The warmth of the fire and the soft light that is playing over me, the ecstasy of death… I feel as though I am glowing. I must be glowing, I must be.

I walk back over to him and stroke his cheek gently. I feel the light sheen of sweat against his cold, dying skin. I press my finger against his neck and feel his pulse. It flickers like an insect's wings, growing faster and faster and with each beat his breathing seems to come to him with more difficulty. I'm breathing faster, too, though for me it's the anticipation, the excitement. What was that rhyme I made up when I was still bedridden? I remember and laugh with delight. "I am the poisonous flower, pretty and sweet, but drink of my nectar and drop dead at my feet… does that not suit me father? You ate of my nectar and now look at you! Weak as a kitten…." I push him off his chair onto the floor. "Look at you!" I say, still keeping my voice as sweet as can be. "You made me this weak, did you not? For weeks I could barely lift a finger. You took my love from me. But now, oh now!" I lower myself so that I crouch next to him and lean in so that my mouth is by his ear and when I whisper my breath tickles it. "I have a new love, dear father. He is the prince of your beloved poisons and you can never take him away from me" My father looks up at me with fear. Is this how everyone will look at me? I rather like it.

I stand up once more and watch my father die.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN. This is the last chapter and I hope you enjoyed this! There is lemon in this chapter and I apologise for its terribleness. **

I leave my father's corpse in his chair by the fire. Before I run back to Oleander, I pause for a moment to look back at him, at the cottage. I am unlikely to return.

Then I run.

"It is done," I tell him breathlessly.

"What was it like?" Oleander asks. I think for a moment. What was it like to watch life leave my father? What was it like to know that it was I who had the power to take it from him?

"It was…powerful. I felt so strong, so beautiful when I stood there feeling your poison in my veins and knowing that I could have that power."

Oleander cups my chin with his hand and smiles at me. His touch sends a thrill running through my entire body.

"It is your poison now, my lovely lady. Shall we complete your transformation?" He kisses me, and the feel of his lips on mine makes me gasp.

"How, my prince?" I ask, speaking softly against the lips that linger upon mine.

"We are to be prince and princess… and I have a promise to keep."

"Yes," I smile as he kisses my neck.

"I always keep my promises"

"I know…" He leads me through the poison garden, away from the gate and the wall.

"Remember this, sweet Jessamine; poisons do more than merely kill." He kisses my neck and pulls me close.

"Oh? Then do show me what else they can do." Around us tendrils of mist seem to form and I know that we are truly in his realm. He kisses me softly, wonderfully, and each kiss makes me only want more. He unlaces the front of my dress and parts the layers; my corset, shift and skirts fall to the floor and I am bare. We lie on the foggy ground and he runs a finger from my collarbone to my stomach. I kiss him and fiddle with the green velvet he is wearing until his chest is bare. As he kisses his way down my body I stroke the planes of his chest and the waxy black leaves of his wings. They tremble under my touch. I pull away the trousers and we are both naked and embracing.

"You are so lovely Jessamine, so sweet…" He breathes huskily and licks the hardened nipples on my breasts and makes me gasp. He hears my gasp and nibbles the soft skin of my breast, my stomach, my thigh. I pull his face up towards mine and kiss him on the lips. I feel his erection against my thigh and here the soft moans coming from him at my touch.

"Do it, my prince." I whisper softly in his ear. When I pull away he nods. He strokes between my legs first, each stroke making me shiver and gasp. It is bliss. His first push inside me hurts and I moan a little at the pain. It melts away quickly, though, into something wonderful. He moves slowly at first and I feel my body begging him to move faster. Each moment is such bliss, such sweetness, that I cannot help but moan. Oleander has kept his promise, is keeping his promise.

We lie in the mist together, his arms around my waist, his wings embracing me.

"Do I intoxicate you?" He asks me, kissing my jaw.

"Oh, so much." I say and turn myself in his arms to look at him. "So very much."

"We are prince and princess now. Where shall we go, what shall we see, and what shall we do?"

While I am thinking I become distracted by a strange itch at my shoulders on my back. I sit up and wriggle, trying to see what is happening.

"What..?"

"It's your wings my lovely." Oleander says lazily.

"I shall have wings again?" I wince as I feel the skin stretch and pull apart. Oleander sits up and strokes my face.

"Yes you shall. Then we shall fly together, you and I." I smile and grip his hand tightly when I feel the wings grow through the tears. I feel them unfurl and I flex them a little, getting used to the sensation of them being there. I turn my head to look at them.

My wings are very different to Oleander's raven wings. Mine are pale gossamer and they gleam softly in their own light. It is then that I feel something growing from my scalp. I put a hand up to my head and feel small vines growing, mingled in with the strands of my hair. I pull one out to look at it and see Jessamine flowers. Oleander stokes them gently then takes my hand and kisses it. "It is complete." He whispers. "We should dress and present you to your court." He pulls on the green velvet that lies on the ground. I move to put on my old dress but pause.

"What should I do? There's no room for my wings?" Oleander laughs.

"Why don't you wear the dress you were wearing when we met?" I watch as he touches my old dress and again, vines grow at his touch. They cover the dress and change it, shape it into something new. The vines bloom so that it is covered in scented white flowers. I am left with the dress I wore last time I was in his world.

Once we are dressed the mist fades and we are back in the poison garden. Oleander takes my hand and kisses it. "Shall we, my princess?"

"I think so."

The plants bow to us when we stand before them. They chant our names and call us their rulers, their leaders. I curtsey while leaves rustle like applause.

"You still have not told me what we shall do first. Where do you desire to go?" I thought for a moment.

"Take me to Weed. Do you not think that he should see what his sweet Jessamine has become?" Oleander smiled dangerously.

"Your wish is my command, my lady,"

We flew up into the air and Oleander led me across the sky.

Weed's POV

I move between towns most of the time. I'm running away from Jessamine, I'm hiding from her. She would be so disappointed in me- no, she would hate me. How many times did I break the oaths I swore to her? And now I am a murderer.

Overhead I hear the sound of wings.

I look up and see Oleander and I feel rage bubble up inside me. He made me do all those things…

"Why are you here?" I shout. "Do you still wish to taunt me?"

"Oh, I do wish to taunt you Weed. But today it is not I who shall have that particular pleasure." He steps aside and it is then that I see that he is not alone, for a woman is there. She is very beautiful.

Then I realise who she is.

"_Jessamine_? No…" She has become like Oleander. I see that in her wings, in the vines growing in her hair, in her lips that are red as the yew berry.

"Have you missed me dear Weed?" She asks me sweetly. I back away from her.

"I, I…"

"Do not be afraid. We were lovers once, were we not?" She steps towards me.

"I loved Jessamine the human"

"Jessamine the human… yes, she is long gone now. I am in her place: Jessamine, the poison princess. I really ought to thank you Weed." I am against a fence now and have no way to escape. I look at Oleander desperately even though I know that he will not move to help me.

"Why do you want to thank me?" My voice shakes. Jessamine hears this and her smile widens.

"You helped to create me. One should show gratitude to those who help them, shouldn't they?"

"What are you going to do to me?"

"Hmm. I'm not sure. What is the best way to reward a former lover? Perhaps a consolation kiss would be best." She leans in close to my face and I am powerless to resist. She smells so sweet that, were I able to run, I do not think I would. When her lips touch mine I am able to taste that sweetness, though I regret ever desiring it soon after.

Her kiss is fire. It burns through me and I know what she has done. I fall to the ground and she smiles mockingly. She kneels beside me and whispers in my ear.

"_Thank you for all that I am about to receive"_


End file.
